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Notes:Deities
The Kingdom of Verandon is the primary setting for the Emerald Canticle stormhost. It was a formerly flourishing kingdom, divided into households that each ruled their own city and met by council to advise the ruling household on major matters. Major houses/cities included House Verandon of Verandon (the ruling house), House Voll of Vollrath, House Duranthel of Duranthel, House Arakk of Arrakkar, and House Keltri of Keltri. The pantheon they worshiped was as follows: * Kern (Kurnoth) is the allfather, he is the great stag who's mighty antlers hold the realms upon their prongs as the crown of the great tree of life, Yorreghal. His essence is found in the leaves of Yorreghal and the birds of prey that live in its branches that keep unwanted pests away. He is the god of the hunt and the act of living. He is the consort of Ellara and travels many miles every spring to see his beloved. * Ellara (Alarielle) is the allmother, she is the trunk, foundation, and the roots of Yorreghal. Her essence is found in the seeds that hang from the tree. She is the goddess of life and of birth. She is the consort of Kern but due to her roots can not leave her secret glade to see him. * Helden (Sigmar) is the storm, his rains nourish the world, create the waterways, and his lightning strikes down encroaching plants who would steal the sun from their kin or starve others. His wrath is found in forest fires and lightning strikes. He is the god of war and storms. * Raghal (??) is the fungus, decay, and vermin. He gnaws at the undergrowth, consumes the dead, and softens the earth for Yorreghal's regrowth every cycle. He prevents the old growth from overtaking the world and helps usher in a new age of rebirth, though his job is thankless. Yorreghal is both a spiritual location and physical location. The "avatar" of the great tree of life is found in the center of Verandon. This tree pulls immense amounts of green wind down into the valley. Every fall Yorreghal dies but is regrown when spring comes as lightning splits its husk and burns it away to reveal a new sapling. It grows incredibly fast and incredibly large over the course of the year and is worshiped almost as a deity in and of itself. Many in the kingdoms saw it as a sign of progress of the kingdom itself and if it flourished in its year of life then the kingdom was thought to be on the right path. The entirety of Verandon worshipped the pantheon as a whole but each household favored certain gods or goddesses over others. House Vernadon held favor with Helden and Kern over the others and viewed them as twin warrior gods for instance and as such those two had larger temples and shrines than the others. In the years preceding the fall of Verandon there was no lightning strike to reveal a sapling and the husk of Yorreghal simply rotted in place. This was seen as a dark omen that Helden had abandoned his favored in the kingdom (in reality, Sigmar had withdrawn to Azyr so they weren't entirely wrong.) Nurgle's first emissaries disguised and pretended to be druids and priests of Raghal and slowly rotted the foundations of the kingdom. Both with the idea that Nurgle was Raghal (a lie), and that House Verandon had grown old and rotted and needed to die so new life could come forth in the cycle. Houses that worshiped Raghal were easy to sway to this idea, as were those who wanted to advance in power in the realm which led to the coup that eliminated Verandon's rulers. Most of the Emerald Canticle are pulled directly from House Verandon, though some smaller chambers or individual members might be souls from other households. Echos of their former lives and worship influence smaller actions of decoration or reverence, but the Stormhost still swears 100% for Sigmar and fights in his name. Category:Notes